Jaylen Brown’s clutch jumper punctuates career-defining playoff run

DALLAS — One year ago, Jaylen Brown sat at the podium after what he deemed one of the worst games of his career – an Eastern Conference Finals Game 7 loss in which he turned the ball over 8 times and shot just 8-23 from the field.

“I failed,” Brown said then. “We let the whole city down.”

Now, he’s on the verge of leading Boston to an NBA championship after a postseason run in which he’s often the best two-way player on the floor, averaging 24.9 points on 54.3% shooting and hitting several game-saving baskets throughout.

“I like to pride myself that I always try to play with that fire and that passion,” Brown said earlier this week. “I feel like that’s what makes me who I am, the essence of why I play and how I play. But my experiences — the heartbreaks, the losses — have all kind of cultivated into what you see now. I don’t want to feel that again.”

In Game 3 vs. the Mavericks — with just over a minute to go and the Celtics holding a fragile two-point lead — Jaylen Brown made the shot of the night, and potentially, of this NBA Finals. A 21-point Boston lead had disappeared in almost the blink of an eye and the Celtics were on the precipice of losing a series-altering Game 3 in front of a raucous American Airlines Center crowd.

Rather than crumble in the face of mounting pressure, Brown called for the ball. He wanted to get to his spot – the quintessential midrange shot, one that’s been his bread-and-butter throughout his career.

Swish.

The shot was a dagger for a Mavericks team that was building momentum, and Dallas didn’t score another field goal the rest of the way.

It was only fitting that it was Brown – the same guy who hit the game-tying three-pointer in Game 1 against Indiana, the same guy who was nearly traded from the Celtics just a few years ago for Kevin Durant, the same guy who’s been routinely left off of accolades, passed over for the final shot of a basketball game, mocked for his deficiencies.

As the ball sailed through the net, it punctuated a career-defining postseason run — and a monster second-half in which he led all scorers with 24 points on 10-16 shooting.

“I felt like I’ve been able to just deliver just by being just being patient and being poised,” Brown said. “Those opportunities have presented themselves, and I’ve been able to take advantage of them. But I give all my credit to my teammates for the trust they had in me to have the ball in my hands and to be able to make those plays.”

Joe Mazzulla, who has consistently praised Brown’s dedication to his craft all season, was at a loss for words at the podium trying to capture the growth and approach of his star player has grown.

“I mean, how can I explain Jaylen?”

“The guy just has a growth mindset. He just wants to get better. He yearns to get better. He’s not afraid to face his weaknesses on the court. So when you have that type of mindset, you’re just going to be able to take on every situation that the game brings you.”

At practice, Brown can regularly be seen doing two things: practicing free throws, and practicing making reads, working with seemingly the entire coaching staff to simulate in-game situations where he has to decide whether he’s passing, pulling up, or driving to the basket.

“He puts himself in every single situation that he sees in a game,” Mazzulla said. “He uses six, seven, eight coaches a day, and every situation on both ends of the floor, he puts himself in that.”

Derrick White has described Brown as “unreal” countless times throughout this playoff run.

“​​He’s just a guy that just wants to learn,” White said. “Some of the drills he does are just a little unconventional, but he just wants to learn and wants to grow. Every year he’s been in the league, he’s gotten so much better. That’s just a credit to his mindset and the work he puts in.”

The desire to improve has been contagious for a Celtics squad that’s been historically dominant all season long.

“Being his teammate has been a lot of fun,” White said. “I’ve learned so much from him, and he just continues to push me and the rest of us to continue to improve and want to get better.”

Over his last two games, Brown has collected 15 assists. In Game 3, he flirted with a triple-double, finishing with 30 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists, all while relentlessly guarding Luka Doncic and making life miserable for whoever he was matched onto, fulfilling a promise he made earlier in the season to being the best defender on the court.

“I told myself that I wanted to just maximize my defensive potential, and I wanted to make First Team All-Defense going into the season,” Brown said. “That didn’t happen, but to be able to be in these moments and show your defensive versatility, picking guys up, guarding guys in the post, guarding contested threes, switching on, it’s been big for us.”

There were countless plays Brown made throughout the night – and throughout this run – that have allowed the Celtics to get to this point, one win away from the franchise’s first championship since 2008.

But perhaps none were bigger than the mid-range shot that put the game out of reach for Dallas.

“Big-time shots,” White said. “Just a guy that wanted the ball and was able to get to his spot and rise up and knock it down. He makes tough shots, and he’s just a special player.”

It’s been a collective effort for the Celtics all season long – with a different player stepping up every night, and the whole thing working because of the unwavering trust to find the open guy.

“We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t have JB on our team,” Tatum said prior to Game 2.

With everything going haywire in the fourth, the Celtics settled down and pulled out a win that pushed them within a game from a championship.

“All year long we’ve been hearing about the Celtics of the past,” Brown said. “For the last six to eight months, that’s all we’ve been hearing — all the different shortcomings we’ve had in the past. This is a new team. We’ve learned from those experiences. And in these moments, you can see that we learned from it. We stepped up to the plate, and we found a way to win.”

At the conclusion of Game 3, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown held a long embrace at center court, a moment that was years in the making.

“I told him I was proud of him,” Tatum said. “And he said the same thing.”